Hey all!

I have a question for anyone who might have some knowledge. I have a growing media library and I currently use the free tier of Plex to stream my media anywhere (not just on my LAN). Plex makes this super simple (I literally have to do nothing) to stream media from my home server to anywhere I am when traveling, or letting others stream from my library.

I have been intrigued by Jellyfin, though, and I know it is basically the open source version of Plex with all the same features and capabilities (or mostly).

My question is this: I want access to a feature (streaming my music library to my phone) which is behind a pay wall in Plex: https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass/. This functionality is available on Jellyfin without any paywall, but I would need to roll my own way to securely access my home server while I'm outside of my LAN (maybe something like this blog post? https://medium.com/@fabrice_/setting-up-a-media-server-jellyfin-and-making-it-securely-accessible-from-anywhere-in-the-world-ca3b4d9dd19e) and I really have no idea what I would be doing.

Right now, my streaming costs me absolutely nothing. Plex is free for what I need and I can access it anywhere. Plex premium starts at $5 a month, and gets cheaper from there for a year or lifetime. This would allow me to stream my music to my phone. If I have to make a Jellyfin external site setup, it looks like domain names can cost money on a regular basis, too. Maybe there's other infrastructure I would need to pay for to host as well?

I'm lost, and curious if anyone has any thoughts, insight, or experience with hosting a media library for cheap (or free) which is accessible anywhere in the world (or maybe to an app on a phone).

Thanks for reading!

    Turns out I was wrong and Plex does let me play my music without paying for premium with the Plexamp app. Looks like I don't need to set up a Jellyfin server, though I am still interested in it as the open source alternative to Plex.

      Bhibb it looks like domain names can cost money on a regular basis

      you should be able to access the server directly from an IP address as well, you don't necessarily need a domain for this.

          Bhibb Looks like I don't need to set up a Jellyfin server, though I am still interested in it as the open source alternative to Plex.

          I never used Plex/Jellyfin.
          Kodi for videos is my favorite, mpd for music is good (local streaming)

            synth-ruiner How would you secure that access? Is there a free way to route your traffic to your home server without something like the SSL tunnel discussed in that post above?

            I'm a novice to all things network based when it comes to port forwarding, or opening ports, or the like.

            @SolarLune I wanted to host my media and stream to several devices which is why I didn't end up going with Kodi, but I wouldn't know how to get to my MPD server remotely, either. Do you have any ideas for non-local streaming?

                Bhibb Do you have any ideas for non-local streaming?

                I have never setup a non-local streaming, so I don't know.
                (btw you pinged the wrong user)

                How would you secure that access? Is there a free way to route your traffic to your home server without something like the SSL tunnel discussed in that post above?

                I heard about tailscale and Cloudflare Zero Trust.
                Tailscale should be pretty easy.

                    Solarmass Apologies for pinging the wrong user.

                    I have looked into Tailscale and it will work for my purposes with my personal computer and my phone, but I also have other non-technical users whom I want to share my library with and setting up Tailscale on their TV's or Playstation 5's may not be simple or possible (depending on the model of TV).

                    I'll look into Cloudflare Zero Trust.

                        Bhibb I also have other non-technical users whom I want to share my library with and setting up Tailscale on their TV's or Playstation 5's may not be simple or possible (depending on the model of TV).

                        not sure how to solve that problem 🤷

                            Solarmass I just tested with Tailscale on my home server and on my cell phone and it works flawlessly. This will work for now when I want to listen to music while driving. I'll hunting for answers for the above problem.